Hellmut Wollmann Book order

Focusing on Germany's local government system, the book examines its political, functional, administrative, and financial characteristics within a European context. Utilizing an "institutionalist" approach, it analyzes the evolving role of local governments in response to various challenges, including the energy crisis, refugee influx, digitization efforts, and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The discussion highlights the shifting dynamics of local governance in a multi-level intergovernmental framework.

The book will give a comprehensive introduction into Germany’s local government system in covering its (federal and European) intergovernmental setting, its territorial, political, administrative, functional and financial structures as well as the respective recent reforms thereof. The potential and limits of local government to cope with the current financial and socio-economic crisis will loom large in the analysis. In order to bring out the specific profile of Germany’s local government its crucial features will be placed in a comparative European perspective. Since an English language monograph on the German local government system is still largely lacking in the pertinent international literature the book is expected to contribute to filling this gap.

This text collects a set of specially commissioned chapters by British and German political scientists as well as experts in public administration and management, designed to present and grapple with the range of the subject in an accessible but sophisticated form. In doing so, the volume seeks to fill the gap perceived to have opened up between the conventional comparative government literature and the new public management literature. While the first part of the book explores the historical, political and cultural context of public sector reform, the second part deals more specifically with institutional developments and recent reform trends in the fields of social policy and social service delivery. The volume analyzes the degree of convergence or divergence between the two countries with regard to public sector change.